Tactical Plan

The first win, and arguably the most significant, arrived at Chester on 14 September 2024 in a Class 2 race — one of the top-tier races in Britain. For context, that is not the level where horses stumble into victory by accident. Chester is a notoriously tight, almost circular track that suits specific horses with a particular racing style, and Tactical Plan clearly took to it. Then, less than a month later, came a second win at Goodwood in October 2024. Two wins in the space of a few weeks, both at quality venues — that was a purple patch worth remembering.

Since then, though, the wins have dried up. Tactical Plan has gone 21 months without returning to the winner's enclosure, and the last six runs — a sequence of 4-4-10-8-4-16 — tell a story of a horse that can still place but is struggling to rediscover its best. The bulk of its racing comes at Class 4 level, where it has won just 1 from 10, or roughly 1 in every 10 attempts at that grade. That's actually slightly below what you'd hope for a horse competing at what should be a comfortable level.

Ed Dunlop's yard has been in solid form this season — 39 winners and counting from their Newmarket base — so the support is there. Tactical Plan raced just one day ago, which means it is very much an active runner still being aimed at opportunities. Whether it can rediscover that Chester spark is the question worth asking. A horse that wins a top-class race at a specialist track is always capable of doing it again. The trick is finding the right day.